Hidden Gem: PC Layout In Android Jelly Bean Keyboard

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October 31, 2012November 2, 201214

[UPDATE: The same keyboard is also available on the Android 4.1 Stock Keyboard, so all you Jelly Bean users can try this out too]

The Android 4.2 Keyboard has been out in the wild for a few hours now (first leaked on Android Police) and we’ve been playing with it. While the swype-ing mechanism on the keyboard is pretty decent, we miss some of the touches that the Swype keyboard offered. While digging though the menus, we found an interesting new keyboard type in it called the PC Keyboard.

Here’s a comparison of the normal keyboard with the PC keyboard.

Once you have downloaded and installed the Android 4.2 keyboard on your 4.0+ Android device (see how here), this is how you enable it. Bear with us if you feel we are going too much into detail over something really simple as we have tried to make it as easy as possible for pretty much anyone.

Steps To Bring Up PC Keyboard

Fire up the keyboard by clicking on a text box. Long press the Common Comma Key. Select the Settings icon and click on ‘Android Keyboard Settings’.

Scroll down to Advanced Settings. Then go to Custom Input Styles.

Once in Custom Settings, click on Add Style. Then, keep Language as what you normally use, and in Layout, click on PC

Once you select PC as the Style and go back, a popup will remind you to enable Custom Input Styles from another set of settings. Click Enable here. Then, make sure Use System Language is NOT CHECKED in the next screen. Rather, select [Language] (PC) as an Active Input Method.

Now, simply go back to a text box to open up your old keyboard. Long press the Space Bar to change Input Method (or use the icon in the pull down Status Bar) and select the PC Input.

That’s it! You are set.

Here’s what the PC Input keyboard offers:

Both Left Hand and Right Hand Side Shift Keys

An extra row of numbers at the top.

Commonly used punctuation marks always on the screen.

The keyboard is actually more useful in Landscape Mode.

Do let us know how you like the new Input Style in the comments below.